In 2010, Universal Entertainment released its newest family feature to theaters all over the country. The film told the story of a not-so-super-villain trying to carry out a not-so-evil plan with the help of his not-so-helpful helpers. There's also some good ol' family love and cheesiness, some cute kid moments, a few lovable quotes and a ton of laughs. You may know this flick as "Despicable Me."
As most children's' movies do, "Despicable Me" took over the merchandise shelves of every store in the country. The logo and characters were on beach towels, plates, toys and video games. And, just as all kids' movies do, after a month of two of this craze, the "Despicable Me"-related fads died out. All except one.
That's right. The Minions.
They made for easy Halloween costume inspiration. They were perfect cheap little carnival or claw machine prizes. They were still cute and lovable and funny even if you'd already seen the movie 23 times. They were one of Universal's greatest marketing tools. They also helped as a huge plot point for "Despicable Me's" sequel. They were great. Or so we thought.
Three years later, in 2013, the sequel "Despicable Me 2" was another hit. In fact it was bigger than the original — a big movie for families everywhere to see. The merchandise flooded shelves again, and soon died as the chaos of the movie began to ebb away.
But the little yellow Tic-Tac abominations survived. They got stronger. They never left the stores their parent movies had once ruled. No, the Minions stayed. They became toys. They were put on t-shirts. They became a part of every McDonald's Happy Meal. They were photoshopped on dumb quotes that middle-aged moms would begin sharing on Facebook.
Quotes that had nothing to do with Minions!
Then, it happened.
They got their own movie.
Now, I'm not typically one to write about or criticize anything that makes people happy, especially when those people are intended to be kids. I'm a follower of the "you do you" philosophy. But can't we all agree that we've gone too far?
The Minions have taken over, and I'm not sure how much more I can take.
I can't walk through Walmart without seeing at least seven Minion-related articles of clothing. I can't scroll down Pinterest without a "Cute DIY Minion Craft!!" popping up. And I think we all know the pain of being a friend of the mom I mentioned above who seems to share those dumb minion quote pictures ALL DAY LONG.
WHEN
I'm tired of the goggles, the overalls and the yellow. I'm sick of the "bee-doo, bee-doo" quotes everywhere. And if I see another Minion picture on my newsfeed, I'm going to lose it. Movies are fun, but not when advertisement is taken to the extreme (I'm looking at you too, "Frozen").
At the rate this Minion infatuation is going, I'm really not all that surprise that Gru was so miserable all the time. If you were surrounded by a million real ones, wouldn't you feel the same?
